Cataract Evaluation

If you think that you may have cataracts, our appointment desk will schedule you for a complete dilated eye examination.  As there can be many causes for vision loss besides cataracts, your examination will be quite thorough.  

• The examination will start with a discussion of your symptoms.  Cataracts can cause a variety of problems, such as difficulty reading fine print, difficulty seeing road signs while driving, or trouble with viewing the television.   Cataract patients often give up driving at night because of glare symptoms.  Hobbies such as handwork and crocheting can become difficult.  Nowadays cataract surgery is indicated when you can no longer see well enough to participate in the activities you enjoy.

• Measurement of your vision and careful refraction, measurement for glasses will be done.  Even if you have cataracts, your vision may be improved adequately just by updating your glasses.  It is often possible to put off cataract surgery for years by periodically changing glasses prescription.  Eventually, however, a cataract can progress to the point where new glasses will no longer provide adequate clarity of vision.  At this point generally cataract surgery is considered.

• Next, your pupils will be dilated so that your eyes can be examined inside and out.  A cataract is a clouding of your natural lens.  The lens is located behind the iris (colored part of your eye).  With your pupil dilated the lens can be seen in its entirety.  Your doctor will judge the degree of clouding of the lens and whether it would help to replace it with an intraocular lens implant.

• All other parts of the eye are closely examined as well.  Diseases of the cornea (the clear window in front of the eye), retina, and optic nerve can also cause blurred vision.  In particular, detection of diseases such as macular degeneration and glaucoma are critical before considering cataract surgery.  A professional can often predict whether or not in a given patient cataract surgery will lead to a significant improvement in visual acuity.  

• Finally, a cataract evaluation will include a discussion of treatment options.  Of course, there is always the option of doing nothing.  Cataract surgery is almost always elective and the timing of surgery is generally up to the patient.  Other medical problems may need to be attended to first.    A risk-to-benefit analysis will help in the decision of whether to proceed with cataract surgery.  Fortunately, modern cataract surgery has a success rate in excess of 95%.  

  

• Once the decision to proceed with cataract surgery is made, there will be a discussion of which intraocular lens implant will best fit your needs.  Remember that a cataract is a clouding of the natural lens and surgery involves removing it. A new lens implant is then placed in the eye in a position behind the iris where the cataract was located.  These intraocular lens implants come in all different powers and styles.  New developments in lens technology allow correction of astigmatism and presbyopia (need for reading glasses) as well as nearsightedness and farsightedness.  Lessening or eliminating your need for glasses simultaneously with cataract surgery is now an exciting new option for you to consider.